How about a two-minute mystery book set on Kirk's Enterprise?
Lit GENRES you'd like to see
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
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Heh. When I was a new Trekkie in the 80s, I wrote a fanfic (blessedly lost to obscurity) called Who Shot Captain Kirk? (All authors are products of their time...)
I think the first person idea is interesting. I think every book in The Captain's Table series from the 90s was largely first person, with some interlude chapters in the standard third person limited omniscient.
There have been two hard-boiled mysteries, I think (Dean Wesley Smith's Dixon Hill novel, and a book starring Sam Cogley -- also by Dean? I forget). John M. Ford wrote a musical comic operetta (no small feat) in How Much For Just the Planet? (which I confess I've tried to read twice and just have never gotten into.) Dean also wrote a pulp sci-fi in his Captain Proton book.
How about an epic poem along the lines of Beowulf? Or a Jane Austen-style romance? ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Vulcan male must, every seven years, take a mate or die.")
I think some publisher other than Pocket (sorry, too lazy to Google) published a whole book called Treks Not Taken, which were either original stories or episode recaps written in the styles of various famous authors.
I think they're like Encylcopedia Brown stories, only shorter -- little logic puzzles that have the clue you need to solve the case in a throwaway line of dialogue. (Like from the only Encyclopedia Brown case I ever remember, Bugs Meaney is trying to sell a kid a sword with an inscription that says, "Presented this day, XYZ 1861, at the First Battle of Bull Run" -- how do you know it's a fake? Because they would not have known there'd be a Second Battle of Bull Run a few years later.)
Basically, it's solve-it-yourself mysteries with the clues hidden in the story. It depends on you knowing real world facts or recognizing inconsistencies in someone's claims. There could be "easy" ones, based on simple logic/flaws in a character's alibi, and "hard" ones that require you to have a knowledge of Trek lore.
Oh, those! Oh, that would be great, I've always loved those; I never knew they had a name. I always just thought of them as "Encyclopedia Brown-style".
Edit: Haha, and I just saw Bibliomike said exactly the same thing. Sorry, missed your post.
I could see them doing it with real-world stuff -- it might actually be a fun way to teach some basic science. But there's too many canonical inconsistencies to base them on misstatements of Trek "facts," I think. Someone in another thread posted yesterday a passage from a novel where the TNG crew takes a turbolift to get to the observation lounge, so...
Here's an example from a time I tried my hand at one. Not Trek related but it gives you the general idea. And they don't have to involve a crime, just a riddle. https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2011624/1/Visit-From-a-Family-Friend
Not if said facts are referenced in the story. I see your point - every time you think you know what happened in history, Trek rewrites it. Section 31 intrigue further muddies the waters.
You could have a "who drank the last of McCoy's Romulan ale" puzzle too, along with thefts, murders, sabotage, etc...
Hmm. I was, for a time, big on Infocom games. No, I'm not suggesting interactive fiction; rather, I recall they made a big deal of how Amy Briggs' Plundered Hearts was their first interactive romance.
Or a choose your own adventure book! Those are interesting.
I actually have a TOS Trek "Which Way Book" from the 1980s (a CYOA knockoff imprint). (I think its TOS because that's all there was at the time.) It is not that good, but, hey, it's out there. I also think William Rostler wrote one when TWOK came out, but in the third person omniscient, which, to me, saps all the fun out of it. CYOA stories have to be second person, or else, what's the point?
I tried writing one of those, too, when I was a middle school scribbler. The only thing I remember about it was introducing Spock as "the emotionless, pointed-eared science officer." I guess I was still figuring out what was most important about the character!
Well, that's not cheating... with those books, that's kind of the whole point, right? That's what gives them re-readability. IMO, at least.I had one of those "Which Way" books too; what bugged me about it was it cheated by having different paths result in entirely different and mutually exclusive scenarios.
Yeah I know all CYOA books do that, but it still bugged me.
How about a "Where's Waldo" style book, except you have to find characters or ships in big crowds. Gives "the search for Spock" a whole new meaning.
Too bad it came out two years after ST 3. That would have been marketing gold.
Too bad it came out two years after ST 3. That would have been marketing gold.
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I can see that. Myself I guess I always wanted them to be "this scenario is happening, what will you do in it, what options will you take as you move forward in it?" More along the lines of an RPG in book form, I guess? Not something like "if you make this option then aliens attack, but if you make this option then for some reason there are no aliens and instead there's a mummy swarm".
Oh, I guess I see what you're saying - where the choices make logical sense once a scenario has started. Yes, sometimes CYOA is guilty of that, which is why you never really choose your own adventure in such books - all the twists, turns, and outcomes have been decided by the author.I can see that. Myself I guess I always wanted them to be "this scenario is happening, what will you do in it, what options will you take as you move forward in it?" More along the lines of an RPG in book form, I guess? Not something like "if you make this option then aliens attack, but if you make this option then for some reason there are no aliens and instead there's a mummy swarm".
The early CYOAs were really good about playing fair -- and they'd have 30-40 different endings, with lots of choices. As the series worn on, sometimes you got down to "Choose from 12 different endings!" and almost every page ended with, "Turn to page x," instead of letting you choose.
I had some solo-player RPGs in book forms as a kid, too - not Trek-related, but a hybrid of CYOA and rolling dice to deal or lose hit points, etc. I could see Trek lending itself very well to that.
Of course, although they have been publishing CYOAs again for about a decade now, I fear such books in print form have a limited appeal when you're up against interactive online gaming, VR gaming, etc...
All it takes is someone to revitalize/bring them back. Like, you could have certain bonus choices that only show up when you scan a QR code, complete with video animation of your choice's outcome? It's not hard to think of ways to make it relevant again; I just thought of that now.
More humour. Where's this generation's How Much For Just the Planet?
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